Dark Lightning (Thunder and Lightning) by John Varley Read Free Book Online Page B

question. There is a theory that after his injuries, his brain rewired itself somehow to be different from a normal human brain. Aunt Elizabeth believes that Papa is different because of the damage.
    To me, it really doesn’t matter. Was Einstein’s brain completely different from other human brains? Is that what led him to his way of seeing the universe from an angle no one had seen before? My guess is, no. If he hadn’t thought it up, someone else would have.
    It’s not that way with Papa. One day, in his lab in Florida, he invented something that somehow screwed with space itself. He cobbled it together out of things lying around. When he was done, he was able to create these little spheres, like Christmas tree ornaments, only so perfectly reflective that you could see them only as distortions of space. They didn’t interact with anything around them. The only way to hold them was to surround them with your fingers or some sort of cage, as they had zero friction.
    That was interesting enough, but there was more. A lot more.
    The size of the bubbles could be adjusted. If you started with a small one, say, the size of a playing marble, and expanded it to the size of a basketball, you had a pretty good vacuum inside. Then if you turned it off, the air would rush in, and there would be a loud pop.
    That’s what Papa wanted to use them for. Noisemakers, like firecrackers. He figured they could make a lot of money out of them.
    Papa has almost no practical sense. He just fiddles around.
    Luckily, my uncle Travis was the hardheaded side of the family. He had already taken a few gadgets that Papa made, patented them, and made the two of them wealthy.
    Travis asked Papa how big he could make the bubbles. Plenty big, Papa said. So imagine expanding that marble-sized bubble bigger than a house Now turn it off. One
heck
of a bang.
    But the real power of the things was if you reversed that sequence. Start with a bubble the size of a house and squeeze it down to the size of a marble. That’s a lot of air in there. A lot of power. Squeeze it down to the size of a proton. Now you have an undetectable bomb.
    There’s more. Make a bubble a mile across, and instead of air, squeeze water, or rock, or garbage, or anything at all, down to the size of a marble. Now turn it off. But it would be wise not to be on the planet where this is being done. You should be a safe distance, maybe fifty million miles or more. Because that sucker is going to crack the planet wide open.
    —
    I hadn’t really been all that worried about Papa Jubal when he came out of the black bubble and hollered for the ship to stop.
    But while Mama was dressing down Cassie—dressing her down for dressing up—I thought it was wise to skedaddle down the hall before she turned around and saw me. I slipped into their bedroom.
    Papa was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands, and he was shaking. He looked up when I closed the door. His worried expression quickly changed to alarm.
    “Oh, my sweet Polly. What happened to you,
cher
?”
    Papa is the only one who can tell me and Cassie apart with just a glance. I don’t know how he does it. Even Mama gets it wrong every once in a while. We quickly learned never to try any twin tricks on Papa.
    “
Ce n’est rien.
It’s nothing, Papa. Just a little fracture.” I moved the arm up and down in the sling to show that it didn’t hurt. It did hurt, a little, but I trust I didn’t show it.
    “Oh,
mon bébé doux
! You makin’ me old before my time, whizzin’ aroun’ on them flyin’ sticks, like Holloween witches. Come here,
cher
, come here. Come give your papa a hug. Let me kiss it an’ make it well.”
    I decided not to tell him about my other injury.
    I hurried over and was trying to sit beside him on the bed, but he embraced me and twisted around until I was sitting on his lap. Papa is very strong. It had been years since I’d sat on his lap, and I was surprised at how warm and safe it made me feel. We